Macon Sports Hall induction: Part of Serafy will always be at Stratford (updated)
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Upon reaching the stage and microphone, and with a mind swimming with memories and seeing scores of faces in the crowd – some that haven’t been around for awhile – an inductee’s memory can slip.
The fortunate ones catch it, amid the stream of thank-yous and expressions of appreciation.
Eddie Ashley was fortunate.
The longtime former Bibb County coach – of baseball, football, and basketball, at Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast – noted some of the many people he dealt with in more than 40 years of work in the county. And, of course, there were thanks of those close to him, another long list.
And then, a near ‘oops’.
“I better not forget this,” he said. “I got to go home tonight.”
And with that, he thanked his wife Vera.
Ashley was among eight inductees into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame Thursday night in front of more than 350 in the Monument Room of the Macon Centreplex, and all had scores of people to thank.
Bibb County Scholar-Athletes
Central: Zaren Harris and Kylan Hill
Central Fellowship: Emily Clements and Eli Smith
Covenant: Abby McCullers and Mason Brown
FPD: Cooper Martin and Sadie Frame
Howard: Annie Lauer and Armando Ibarra
Mount de Sales: Grace Blackwell and Jarrett Sanders Jr.
Northeast: Victoria Dumas and Chavis Rouse
Rutland: Jada Brown and Landon Miller
Southwest: Jasmine Billue and Javoris Smith
Stratford: Sammy Martin and Ellie Peterson
Tattnall: Ivey Whetsel and Logan Fink
Westside: Etta James and Desmond Talton
Windsor: Stevie Arrington and Sydney Weiche
The hall also recognized players from the Peter G. Appling High girls basketball team of the early 1960s, the team dominating from 1961-64. The school only existed for 11 years, but the team coached by Clara Bryant Everett Hollins left its mark.
Backgrounds of the inductees ranged from basketball to golf to soccer to swimming to volunteering to using political clout to raise the standard of recreation facilities in the city and county.
Former Southwest basketball standout Shana Askew-Daniels is still in town coaching, at her alma mater, after playing at Auburn, and looked like she could post up and handle anything the current players brought. Bobby Hix, a standout athlete at Stratford and then Mercer, is still teaching golf at Idle Hour. James Stockslager is all but the father of youth and high school swimming in Macon. Catherine Rader Wood and Hix recalled some of the playing days of former Mark Smith and Georgia basketball standout Charlie Anderson. And Theron Ussery’s fingerprints are all over the expansion of facilities in town for kids to play sports and participate in activities without, as he had to do, going 25 blocks for such a place.
Grant Serafy wasn’t known as an overly sentimental type when he was building Stratford’s boys and girls soccer programs from afterthoughts to area and state standard-setters, and then injecting life into the Mercer women’s program. He was occasionally difficult, so it may have been a surprise that there was a lack of confidence soon after he took the job at Stratford
“At times in those early years, I considered not continuing as a coach. I considered quitting and moving on, trying my hand as a college coach, maybe going to a high school in another part of the country where soccer was more popular,” he said. “Then I started thinking to myself. I started to think where might the most challenging places in the country be to start building a soccer program.”
Odessa, Texas somehow came to mind. Then he figured it might be wise – and money-saving – to dig his heels in at Stratford and at Macon.
“The other sports were so ingrained here and so popular here, and had such a rich tradition here. That thought is what motivated me.”
Serafy’s motivation could occasionally exhaust others who weren’t as focused on the same goals. The soccer improved, and parents bought in to his vision of more than just a decent soccer program.
‘In 2001, Stratford – and I was fortunate to be a part of this – due to the great generosity of a many people, they built this beautiful office/locker room building right in the middle of two beautiful and immaculate soccer fields on the campus of Stratford,” Serafy said. “I was so proud to be a part of that, and so proud to see that vision that I had for myself realized.”
Serafy went 215-64-13 with Stratford’s boys – and several of those players were in the audience – and 153-14-4 with the girls, who earned some national rankings. He went on to a successful stint at Mercer, then left and coached a youth team connected to MLS. He left soccer coaching full-time for a bit and began a graphics business, and designed templates for several major colleges before returning to coaching last year at Lovett.
But the Atlanta native who played at Hartwick College in New York and Davidson will always have a piece of his heart in northwest Macon, not far from the other high schools who followed Stratford’s lead and invested in their soccer programs as rivalries grew. FPD’s girls, for example, are playing Saturday in the GHSA Class A championship at Mercer.
“I can’t tell you how much I loved that place,” said Serafy, now coaching at Lovett. “I can’t tell you how much I love driving up Peake Road and just seeing this little nook, the lights over the trees, this little, beautiful soccer facility we had been able to build. I’m a little biased, of course, but I’ve been able to travel the country since I left Macon in 2012, and I still think that’s the most beautiful soccer facility in the country.
“I loved that place.”
Highlights from the inductees at Thursday night’s Macon Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony:
“I would also like to honor my mentors, three of them. Butch Clifton, who’s here tonight who coached me at Mark Smith and UGA. Coach John Guthrie, the late Coach John Guthrie, who coached me at UGA. Bill Mays, who was my summer coach, who along with my father taught me to be a man. They all had this unique ability … it was the ability to make a young man know that they believed in him. It’s amazing to know … what you will do. It pulls everything within you.”
Charlie Anderson, who played basketball at Mark Smith, Northeast, and UGA, and was part of Mark Smith’s short – because the school lived barely a half-dozen years – but stellar basketball run.
“It was a pleasure working with all the players, coaches, referees, sportswriters, and everyone else involved in my whole career. I never minded getting up and going to work. It was like you went and played all day.”
Eddie Ashley, the longtime coach who finished his career as the Bibb County athletics director who retired this year.
“The road wasn’t always easy, and sometimes, we didn’t know how we were going to make it. But they always found a way to get it done, and I’m forever grateful to them. I would like to thank my stepfather … He stepped in as a father figure in my life and he took care of me even though I wasn’t his biological child. … He always put forth his best effort to make sure we had all that we needed and the majority of what we wanted.”
Shana Askew-Daniels, who played basketball at Southwest and Auburn and is back with the Patriots as an assistant coach.
“I was going to dental school, and I coached summer league, and that’s when it started. … I enjoyed coaching. … End of my year, they gave me three choices where I could go: Central Mississippi, the coal mines of Kentucky, Plains, Georgia. Plains, Georgia. Yes, I was Mr. Jimmy’s dentist for three years.”
James Stockslager, who has spent decades as a volunteer in the local youth and high school swim scene, on the beginning of his career as a swim coach.
“I would like to say that, Charlie (Anderson), I was laying in bed as a seventh-grader listening to that basketball game on the radio. You guys are the reason I still have a pair of black Chuck Taylors in my closet.”
Golf pro Bobby Hix pay homage to Anderson and the Mark Smith team that upset Beach for the 1969 state championship.
“I’m extremely humbled standing here, because a lot of you don’t know my pitiful start. I actually hated basketball and swore that I would never play again. I was playing for the rec department at Freedom Park, and our coach didn’t like me, either. … I was very skinny, very weak, and my coordination had not caught up to me. … I’m honored and humbled because of my pitiful start.”
Catherine Rader (Wood), whose jersey is retired at FPD, where she is the girls basketball team’s all-time leading scorer, helping the Vikings to the first of their three GISA state titles.
“I was standing in my back yard talking to my neighbor. I was griping about we didn’t have recreation (in all areas). We didn’t have the facilities in all areas (to get ) kids away from drugs and gangs and guns. Bobby Henley, who was my next door neighbor, finally said, ‘Well, Theron, just run for public office. I’m kinda tired of hearing this. Get elected do something about it.’ I did.”
Theron Ussery, who spent about two decades on Macon’s City Council with a priority of making sure all parts of the city had respectable recreation opportunities for kids.